Yeah, I’m doing this because:

1. I wanted the Mother’s Day special to basically be this week’s update

2. Give me more time to think about what to do for the response (I already have a good idea though)

3. Give me time to actually make the Genie Twilight response

4. Giving myself a bit of a decent break :V

Yeah, I’ll post what I say about it just like with the others. Around the same time I post the Genie Twilight episode response to the Finale (Which will be a little while still). If you liked the finale however, I’m sure you’ll like what I have to say when it gets to there. ^^

johnnyappleshy:

Oh yeah, lots. A lot of my friends I associate with Fluttershy, and I have a few others I associate with Twilight, like my sister, or some combination of the 2. I suppose the only 2 friends I have I associate with characters commonly are 2 of my closest, since we talk about ponies a lot, so it’s on my mind more and I commonly associate them with the one I think they’re most like, which is Fluttershy and Twilight for the 2 of them. 

That’s uh, sort of a way I tell which people I think I could and should try to be great friends with, and which I shouldn’t, I sort of search for ways to tell which FiM character they’re most like. Like generally, the more someone seems like Fluttershy, the more likely I think we’ll get along great and I should pursue things with them. The more someone seems the opposite, like Rainbow Dash, the more likely I think we won’t get along and I should just give them the cold shoulder and move to someone else, and yeah. Ponies has become a real big part of my life, for better or worse.

Can I give a little bit of perspective on Rainbow Dash? I already know your personal opinions on her. But I thought’d I’d explain a bit why she’s become my 2nd favorite. I think the seeds were planted in Read It and Weep where I really liked how Rainbow was used in a meta sort of way in terms of fans of the show when they were first getting into it. Just replace the book with the first Friendship is Magic episode we watched and Rainbow’s friends with that of family our own friends who might think they’ll laugh that Rainbow/we said we wouldn’t think was so good. Skipped ahead to Season 4, we have Daring Don’t where she’s a bit of a fangirl. And with the conversations she has with Twilight in that episode, she’s like two notable types of fans. Twilight is the longtime fan that even though she’s just about as excited to find out Daring Do is real. She’s still grounded mentally as to not let her excitement overwhelm here. While Rainbow’s the vice-versa. She’s new to Daring Do, but is such a fanatic she does all she can to show her admiration for Daring Do when she finds out she’s real. Sometimes I feel like I can feel a little both towards things like waiting for the next huge episode of Friendship is Magic, or the next Smash Bros. game. While most of the time I can be like Twilight where I can be excited but have it overwhelm me. Sometimes when a really exciting thing comes up, I can’t help but feel like Rainbow in that instance.

I also felt Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 was a bit of a relatable moment. Because I once had trouble figuring out Math. Especially in my middle school years. But my math teacher in my Freshmen year managed to make Math a little more fun and more memorable. To the point that where I once got an average of C’s on most of my assignments. To B+ or even A range. Sometimes a different way of teaching can really help. And while I don’t learn the exact same way Rainbow does by non-consciously picking up details. It’s still relatable in terms it’s a different way then the normal way of studying.

Add that the fact she still has the things that I love about a character like say Sonic the Hedgehog (Fast speed, heroic, always seeks to save/help a friend, etc.) and it’s still believable that she’d do the things that I referenced before. I think makes her, regardless of her flaws of being a tad egotistic at times or abrasive, which I’m definitely not. Just makes her much more of a multi-dimensional character. She can be a fast-flying hero that would brave great danger to save her friends, but she can also be an overexcitable fangirl. And I think that’s really cool to see.

(Oh and it probably helps that unlike most Bronies it seems, I like watching Sports on occasion. xP Especially the Playoffs for like Hockey and Football)

ambris:

I have never been able to get into the Mother series.

I recognize they’re utterly amazing games that deserve their own shelf in the history of gaming.

But I personally find the combat in them too slow and visual boring for me. I tried playing, but I just got bored and moved on.

This is pretty much a faux pas among gamers I know, but that’s how I feel.

I mainly know about the MOTHER/Earthbound series thanks to Smash Bros. I’ve played a rom of Earthbound but like with Zelda games I had no idea what I was supposed to do at the beginning. But I love Ness, he even become one of my mains in Brawl and Project M. And I’m considering maining him again in Smash 4 when he’s confirmed (We all know Ness is going to be back…right?)

Yeah they were most definitely more average. (If I had to decide which of the two were better of the Season 3 duo, it’d actually be Just for Sidekicks). And I didn’t mean to exactly imply they should remove Inspiration Manifestation in favor of this idea. (As I’m not THAT upset by it, especially since I liked that episode)

But yeah the Equestria Games arc was like a subarc to what the Main arc is. And I’m at least glad that should get us a satisfying conclusion this Saturday. ^^

ambris:

Complex and mixed.

There was some concern about the idea of implying that a “princess” is the highest goal a girl could aspire too—that seemed harmful from a feminist perspective. But really, it’s obvious at this point that “princess” means something different in Equestria than it does in our world. It really does, and apparently children have picked up on this too. I can’t find the quote, but apparently some mother sent a message to the writers saying how Magical Mystery Cure taught her daughter that being a princess is about “working hard and being a good person”. Which you know, doesn’t sound like a bad thing at all.

Additionally, at first it seemed like too much of Hasbro forcing story ideas down the throats of writers with minimal warning, all with the intention of selling toys (which, you know, is their primary interest, but still.) The writers managed to take that bullet and still make a good episode out of it, and continue to do so.

So in the end, it’s my belief that Alicorn Sparkle *may* have happened too soon, because I definitely liked the idea of Princess Sparkle—I just think Hasbro lacks the concept of dramatic timing.

But you know, it happened, the world didn’t end, the fandom didn’t die like all the obnoxious doom-sayers claimed it would. Magical Mystery Cure was a really good and emotional episode who’s only major problem was being rushed and crunched into one episode.

And the show has been doing just fine since.

Plus, I can’t help to admit that:

A. Wings are beautiful, and Twilight having them now is lovely~

B. The wings can be helpful in promoting my ship of choice, TwiDash.

So yeah, there is that,

I’m one of the few bronies that saw potential in Twilight becoming an Alicorn Princess back when it was just a RUMOR.

The rumors started as early as when nearly half of Part 1 of the Crystal Empire was leaked in lowres in Late October/Early November 2012. The speculation starting with how Celestia said there was a next level of studies, something in the background where we see the Sun, the Moon, and another symbol on a planetarium that looked like Twilight’s Cutie mark, plus the symbols behind all three of them when there’s a bit of a purple glow. Even further when there were leaked images of official plushies that had Twilight with wings.

But throughout it all, I saw potential almost immediately. And knew it made sense in several areas. And I know the show would get a lot more interesting after this. I know Season 4 hasn’t exactly done alot with Twilight as a Princess other then the opener, Twilight Time, and passing mentions or subtle approaches in Trade Ya and Equestria Games. (But at least the finale should be the first huge one) but I do feel like Twilight’s ascension at the end of Season 3 really gave Season 4 that extra motivator for me to see how the show will handle it.

And amongst all the negativity and drama going on after Season 3 ended, and talk about if this ruined the show’s themes at all. I chose to remain positive and speculate on how Twilight’s Princesshood could be handled quite well. While Season 4 hasn’t met everything that I have hoped (Shame that a flight lesson episode never happened, but oh well) but for the most part Twilight’s Princesshood has been a part of at least few of the episodes and will especially be front in-center with the Finale. And I do feel the show has reached a bit of a new era. Now the show’s generally the same in which it still has mainly slice-of-life episodes with adventure-type episodes to begin or close the season but Season 4 still seems to have provided a different flavor that I personally love. And I think the events of Magical Mystery Cure was just one of those many ingredients to providing this new flavor. ^^

fetch26291 said: So, you’d have liked “Equestria Games” to have been done similar to “Games Ponies Play” and “Just for Sidekicks”?

Basically yeah.

Just think about how it could of been cool to see the Equestria Games arc both start and end in something that is a really a cool idea to do with two episodes in a show like this. And like I said they could of made the 2nd one even smoother and even have some more of the same scenes with a different camera angle. (As the only scenes in terms of dialouge that were the same in Just for Sidekicks & Games Ponies Play was the beginning part where Twilight waves goodbye to Spike and when the Mane 6 start heading back to Ponyville on the Train.)

The episode that we got was still good. But having it set up the same way Just for Sidekicks and Games Ponies Play was done could have allowed us to see more of the Equestria Games that was built and/or hyped up since Games Ponies Play aired. I like Spike, so I enjoyed the episode still overall. But I was also waiting to see what the show did with the Equestria Games. And all those episodes that were building up the games, proved to just be nothing but a subplot in the final episode of it’s arc. So it does give some mixed feelings about the whole thing.

I think you misread what I said. I meant as in leave much of what made up of Spike’s struggle in the episodes as it’s own episode that canonically goes around at the same time as the other episode that would focus on the Mane 6 and the Equestria Game events. The Anthem Scene and some of the Ending being the only main parts that are the same in both episodes. Maybe it’s a tad odd to have an episode that has basically the same ending in some ways for 2 episodes in a row. But we’d get more from Equestria Games as a result.

I’m not that mad Equestria Games was kinda left out of all this. But I’m just thinking of a way they could of possibly both given a good amount of focus on the games and still have the Spike episode that we got. Having the Equestria Games begin and end like this would also feel like a book-end.

I don’t know, I would think it just would of been interesting to see alot more of the games since we had three episodes prior to it building up to it that seemed like it’d be a big thing. Maybe it would have been better if they did something like what Just for Sidekicks and Games Ponies Play did together where we have one Spike episode where he does his stuff and the other the rest of the Main 6 seeing the events of the game. And probably would have fit more too since the Equestria Games arc would both begin and end in episodes in which there are two of them where one half of the episodes is focused on Spike, while the other is on the Mane 6. This one could even be smoother by including the “Spike botches the Anthem” scene and much of the ending in both episodes.

I’m not really that upset over it. As I’d rather the show focused more on the much more important arc that ends in the Finale next Saturday. But I guess I’m just a bit of a Sports fan (Unlike most Bronies it seems) that would of liked to see something like the Olympics be an interesting plotline in the show. But all I can say is oh well, the episode was still good despite the distraction that it feels like Games Ponies Play, Flight to the Finish, and Rainbow Falls all built up to nothing but a subplot in the last episode before the Finale. But that’s the only real complaint with the episode I have.

Both Equestria Games and Filli Vanilli I consider good episodes myself of course.

Though Filli Vanilli is I suppose weird when you take into account all the songs that the Main 6 have done in the past. I guess for some reason that the majority of the songs that weren’t being performed are just a scene of the episode being done like how a Musical does things regarding the plot?

I believe there’s a theory that came out after the episode that In reality the Ponies would not be singing at that moment, but to show how the characters are feeling in a more fancier approach they have them sing in what’s shown to us? Think about why Disney includes songs in many of their movies. Are they there because the character likes to sing? That can be a reason why, but I don’t think that’s always the case and I think it’s more common to see DIsney include songs for the reason of “It’s Disney” and not because of the characters. They include songs to provide a much more entertaining way of showing what the character singing’s motivations or even dreams are sometimes. We see Frollo, the main antagonist from The Hunchback from Notre Dame sing “Hellfire” to express his inner conflict he has about falling for what he calls a Gypsy. It’s probably far more entertaining to the audience for him to sing about it in a Villain song then it is for him to just be talking to himself about it on screen. Which might be technically what he’s doing at the moment, but we don’t know that because we’re offered a pretty cool music sequence to go around him instead of just him alone talking to himself with nothing else to add visually or otherwise no enhancements done to drive the point of what Frollo is trying to say in a way that isn’t that entertaining to watch.

The same goes for a majority of the songs in Friendship is Magic. Magical Mystery Cure could basically be all this as obviously the events of MMC are not done in 22 minutes as the episode begins in the morning, and later comes up during the night, and then finally days or even weeks later when it shows Twilight’s coronation. The musical approach was pretty much the only way they could really show off all the complex feelings of the story and make it so that alot of the story could fit under the 22 minute timeframe. Meaning it’s quite possible that for the exception of Pinkie’s random songs that were quite prominent in Season 1 and any songs that are implied to be a performance, that most of the songs of the show did not happen in Reality as they’re more there to show us a far more entertaining way of exposition, showing how a character is feeling, or other kinds of usage for songs.

TL;DR version: The Filli Vanilli and previous Music situation can be explainable if you go into the thought that most songs that were not some kind of performance (Examples: “You Gotta Share, You Gotta Care”, both Flim Flam brother songs, etc.) actually did not happen in reality. When’s it’s just a much more dramatic and/or entertaining way of expressing what’s going on with the character(/s) who is/are singing at that time.

Also as a side note, regarding Fluttershy and the CMC you must be referencing “Hush Now, Quiet Now” which I don’t think would be like singing in front of a crowd because I imagine Lullabies are easier for Fluttershy to do especially for Animals or in this case children.